Technosquare did not write the article for 370z.com, I did. Why the oil gets hot is my opinion and a posible theory on why the VQ37VHR has high oil temps. Technosqaure just makes the kit and we tested it to see if it works.

If you don't do track days or other sorts of motorsports and run good synthetic oil and change it frequently, then you should not have problems. No need to get excessivly paranoid.

Most track driven cars should have an engine oil cooler. If you participate in motorsports then get the cooler for sure. If you don't, then don't worry so much.

260 degrees is where the properties of the bearings in the engine start to degrade, remember these are soft metals with low melting and softening points. Now there is quite a bit of reserve built into engines so 260 degrees under street driving condtions won't harm the engine. On the track there is a posibility. 280 degrees as the maximum safe temperature on the street is quite reasonable.

If your 370Z has an aftermarket turbo, you are hot lapping and your oil hits 260, time to stop. Same if you are loaded up with performance parts with your rev limit set higher. If your are hot lapping in a stock car and your temp hits 260, time to slow down and cool the oil. If you are in traffic on a hot day, the load on your engine is light and you can drive ok.

The VQ37VHR is not the only Nissan engine to run high oil temps. The RB26 and the SR20 do as well and those engines have pretty good reps.

Definite rep points for an excellent article, and I have corrected my post. :tup: The issue would not be of concern if others who are driving in everyday situations were not overheating (see prior posts), but they are. You live in SoCal, and you know what traffic is like on our freeways...need I say more? Also, I always run synthetics just because of their higher heat related breakdown point, but Nissan is pandering their ester oil that I understand is not synthetic.

And from your article:

smartbomb, do you know if Technosquare's kit actually in production and for sale yet? Or is it just a prototype at this point?

As for oil I heard Eneos works well. Would you recommend an oil with a heavier weight?

There is an engineering reason for the ester oil. An ester is a synthetic, its is a heavy alcohol and not derived from crude.

The VQ37VHR uses a DLC (diamond like coating) coated cam follower, at least the version in the G37 does and I am reasonably sure the 370Z version of the engine has DLC coating as well. The Nissan patented version of DLC coating has an affinity to esters, meaning it attracts the esters to its surface on a molecular level making it even slipperier. DLC coating are used a lot for high end motorsports and Nissan has been using them for several years on cam buckets. The new Nissan DLC is uniquely hydrophilic in its attraction to esters.

So the special Nissan oil actually helps the valvetrain work smoother and quieter. I have head reports that if you put crappy oil in a VQ37VHR, the VVEL system get noisy and clatters but anyone putting crappy oil in this motor should be shot! There was a discussion on our forum about this that an Infiniti master tech referred to but I am not spamming for our forum out of respect here.

So I don't believe that you absolutely have to run the $300 factory Nissan oil change but strongly believe you need to run an ester based synthetic or at least a good synthetic. This is not new to the high performance car market, the Z06 and the EVO have filler caps that say synthetic oil only.

Not to spam but if you guys have technical questions, I am on my forum every day and here only when someone brings a topic I might be able to help on to my attention. I will gladly do my best to help answer questions on either place.

It is avalible now as far as I know.

I run motul 300V on all of my high performance street and race cars. It is an ester based oil. I have had good luck with it. My race engines go about two seasons between teardowns which is pretty unheard of.

For the wife's car and our regular stock cars I run Mobile one.

For the 370Z I would run light oil for regular street driving but 15w50 for track use or spirited driving. Its sort of a trade off, the additives that make for a wide viscosity range also tend to cause sludging and break down sooner.

I think a Z needs 3000 mile service intervals.

Its interesting the 330 turbo BMW's had no cooler when they were launched but had to add one when customers started to experience high oil temps.

Thank you, very informative :tup:

The 335i's with the sport package had the cooler. It was the non-sport that got the cooler added later. BTW, even with the stock cooler you could still get it into limp mode. Saw one do it last weekend in 65-70 ambient temp.

I just launched a survey for us to collect data on oil overheating... please fill it out whether you've had the issue or not... not exactly a scientific sampling method, but better than nothing ! :)

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...html#post63092

Also, just noticed that our OP got hit with some negative rep over this thread... don't know about you guys, but I appreciate Musashi posting on this controversial topic, some I'm going to + him back up !!

Why did he get hit with negative rep?

Just curious, can this high oil temperature issue be corrected by switching over to synthetic oil?

pls read

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...mp-issues.html
http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...4-19-09-a.html
http://www.the370z.com/intake-exhaus...es-plenty.html
http://www.the370z.com/track-autocro...eally-bad.html

For street use probably yes but for performance use no way.

A question for AK...

Would it be an idea to harness 'owner power' by starting a 'Petition Thread' on the forum, where anyone on the forum who is concerned about the oil temp issue could 'sign up' ? Then, after a given period of time (2-3 weeks?) the online 'signatures' could be collated & sent to Nissan by someone in authority here (AK???).

I'm sure that all of us - owners and potential owners alike - want to put pressure on Nissan to correct what is clearly a serious issue. Nissan are obviously aware of it, but they seem to be sitting on their thumbs a bit. In my opinion they need to be spurred into action on this issue, to prevent damage to engine internals.


My suggested title line for the proposed petition goes like this (duh - now I've got to think of one!!!)...

To Nissan Motor Company,
We, the undersigned owners and potential owners of Nissan 370Z's are extremely concerned that the new 370Z's engine oil is prone to serious overheating.
Several new owners have already experienced serious issues associated with this problem since the car's launch a few months ago. We feel that Nissan needs to do four things...

1. Announce an immediate recall on all 370Z's, to enable existing owners to have an oil cooler fitted at Nissan dealerships.

2. Fit an oil cooler to all 370Z's that have not yet been delivered to their new owners.

3. Reimburse any 370Z owner who has already fitted an oil cooler, to cover the cost of this installation ...or offer to replace the oil cooler with one recommended by Nissan.

4. Solve the 'overheating oil' problem, so that new owners do not suffer it.

If you (Nissan) respond positively and speedily to this petition, you will ensure loyalty from your existing customers and also secure many more new sales of what is in many other respects a superb sports car (apart perhaps from the emerging synchro issue!!!!!) <<<<<< I might not add the bit in brackets!


So, what does everyone think? Is it a good idea? Is the wording right and - most importantly - what does AK think of it? I shall pm him, to make sure he sees this post asap.

Personally, I think that forums like this have a 'duty' to champion issues for their community.

Chubbs